Monday, April 15, 2013

Blogging Through the Alphabet: E is for Exercise

As I continue down this healthy living path I have been attempting to increase my exercise again. After each baby I get lazy, sit around too much, eat unhealthily and gain weight. Not only am I trying to improve my diet, I know I have to get moving to burn calories.

Really, I have no excuse for not exercising now. No excuse but pure laziness.

When I was trying to lose weight years ago, the only exercise I could really do was walk. Walking around town before work was my daily exercise. Unless it was raining, then I had that excuse not to exercise. Then I purchased an aerobics DVD from First Place, which helped me to exercise when I couldn't get outdoors. This was years ago, before I met Harold, while I was still working at the Montessori.

In recent years I have been alternating between the DVD, walking and our new toy, the Wii Fit Plus.There was a time when I was doing a bit of the WiiFit Plus and the DVD, though that has been a while. I love the WiiFit Plus, but it is hard to get a good cardiovascular workout in as even with the "aerobic" exercises you constantly have to stop and wait for the program to go through giving you your points and telling you how many calories you burned and then you have to choose a new exercise. I'm not knocking the WiiFit Plus, it has been there for me quite some time, but there are definitely some things that could be improved upon. It is great for a beginner though.

I have been following my own made up routine these last couple of months, though I have been sporadic and that needs to change. I like to start with My Routine, where I can select my yoga and strength exercises. I do about 18 minutes of this for warm up purposes. Then I move on to the Stepping and the Rhythm Boxing. I follow that with some bicycling and the Obstacle Course. Then I cool down with some more stepping and balance activities.

I like to get my exercise out of the way before the children wake up, otherwise I rarely find time to fit it in. When I do exercise with the children up, they tend to distract me and I don't do as well. Especially when a certain little boy keeps getting underfoot. But the constant bickering doesn't help either when it comes to me being able to concentrate.

So, here is the plan for the next 30 days. We are finishing up the first round of our Biggest Loser Challenge in our Facebook Weight Loss Accountability Group in two weeks. Then we will be starting up another challenge. These challenges really do keep me motivated. To help me along with this challenge I have accepted Amanda's "Spring into Fitness" challenge. Amanda blogs over at Honor Your Health and she is starting this neat little challenge to exercise for 30 minutes every day for 30 days in an effort to regain the habit of exercising. I think I will take a picture of my activity log to share daily here on the blog. Maybe I will include what I have eaten during the day on this post, but maybe not. It takes a lot more time to write down what I am eating than it does to upload a picture of the exercises I completed. We'll see.

If I exercise using the DVD or take a walk I will log that to share. I am really hoping to alternate between all three so I can keep from getting bored.

If you would like to join in on this challenge, head on over to Amanda's blog Honor Your Health to see the details and her reminder of exercise precautions.

About Me

I am a stay at home mom. I have always wanted to teach, started college with a major in Early Education, but ended up staying home with my son (which turned into staying home with my 2 sons and daughter). Years later ended up with an Associates Degree in Human Services. Which helped me get a director's position at the Montessori I was working at. I am now staying home with my 3 young children. While my older children are off in public school we are homeschooling. I am doing what I always dreamed of doing, teaching!! I feel this is where God has led and willed me to be. I will be here to "Train up [my children] in the way [they] should go: [so] when [they are] old, [they] will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6